


Storm

by megaotaku98



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Chan is incredibly endearing and flirty, Love Confessions, M/M, MinChan rise bitch, Minho is a closed off loner, Non Idol AU, Non-Explicit Sex, Sailing, flirtacious sword fighting, kind of a medieval-esque universe, nude cuddling, there is some violence but it's not really graphic, unknown killer species
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:15:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25324504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/megaotaku98/pseuds/megaotaku98
Summary: Minho is on a journey to wipe out the creatures that killed his village. He meets an annoying (endearing) deckhand named Chan along the way.
Relationships: Bang Chan/Lee Minho | Lee Know
Comments: 26
Kudos: 183
Collections: STRAY KIDS BIGBANG: 2020





	Storm

**Author's Note:**

> Hello hello hello!!! So this is based off of a dream I had. Don't know how my subconscious invented a whole new species but it did, and when I woke up I was like "huh. I could make an au out of this." And then I ended up using it for this event!  
> I hope you enjoy!!
> 
> Check out the art to go with it [here](https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1MxRI5fa0FQzaLWKhy5XFFg_9tmgpOcXT)!

When sixteen-year-old Minho returned to his village after his three-year-long weaponsmithing apprenticeship, the roads were empty.

It was bizarre- the market was always busy this time of day. How was there no one strolling around? 

He walked around, trying to peer into the different houses to see what was going on. They were all dark, no one was home.

Where did they all go?

Eventually, Minho headed to his own house. His own parents should still be around, right?

“I’m home!” he called out as he walked into the door, but his voice echoed across a house that too, was empty, “Mom? Dad?”

He walked through the small hut, looking all over for his parents. Where were they?

When he got to their bedroom, he spotted them. They were in bed, asleep.

“Oh there you are,” Minho said, sighing with relief, “taking a nap on the day your son comes home? That’s not very welcoming. Come on, wake up! I’m back!”

He walked over to his mother’s side, and shook her gently. She didn’t wake. He shook her a little harder. Still didn’t stir. A little worried, he reached over and tried to wake up his dad. His dad didn’t wake up either.

“M-mom? Dad? You’re not….please wake up. Why won’t you wake up?” Minho was starting to panic. Why weren’t they moving? Why did they feel so cold?

As he shook them more frantically, his dad slumped over on his side. And then Minho spotted it. A wound in his neck, a hole right at the base of his head. An inspection of his mom revealed the exact same wound. Both wounds had dried blood around the area.

Oh no.

Oh no no no.

Minho’s breathing quickened, and tears sprung to his eyes. 

His parents were dead. His parents were _dead_. 

Who could have done this? What about the other people in the village, were they all dead too?

Frantically, Minho ran out of his house and over to the house next door. He threw open the door and checked the bedrooms. The kind old couple that lived there were also in their beds, not moving. 

The next house, same thing. The whole family, still in their beds as if they were sleeping. The next house, and the next house, and the next house, all across the village.

Everyone- dead. With the same wounds on the back of the neck, right at the base of the head. Some houses there weren’t even bodies, just empty rooms.

After running all over and not finding a single survivor, Minho eventually collapsed in the middle of the road, sobs racking through his body. 

They were gone. 

Everyone he had ever known, had grown up with, had shared memories with, his friends, his family, all _gone_ . And whoever had killed them, _murdered_ them, was nowhere to be found.

Then- he saw something in the corner of his eye. Something scuttling. He whipped his head around, trying to see what it was. Another thing scuttled in the corner of his other eye, he whipped his head in that direction. 

Rats? No, looked too big to be rats.

Minho shook his head, he must be just seeing things. His shock and grief were messing with his head, and he wasn’t thinking clearly. Wiping the tears from his face, he got up and walked back home. And he sat there, in the living room, wondering just how this all could have happened. How recent? How did everyone die the same way? 

On his walk back he had noticed something on the outskirts of the village- burial mounds. A whole lot of them. Minho made an educated guess that those were the rest of the villagers, the ones who just simply weren’t there while their homes gathered dust.

Eventually, it started to get dark, and Minho figured he should just go to bed. 

Who knows? Maybe this was all just a too real nightmare, and going to sleep here will mean he’ll wake up for real, and see his mother’s smile and feel his father’s embrace as if nothing happened. Minho crawled into his bed, closed his eyes, and drifted off.

  
  


He was awoken suddenly by sharp pain. He bolted upright, wondering what the hell had hurt him. It was still hurting…..on the back of his neck.

_Right at the base of his head._

With a cry of panic, Minho reached back and tried to swat away whatever must have been attacking him. His hand came in contact with something kind of slippery, and spindly. Without thinking much he grabbed and pulled and was able to pull the thing off. He whipped around to look at it.

It was….Minho didn’t know what it was. He had never seen a creature like it before.

It had long spindly legs, kind of like a spider except there were only six of them. And the body looked...sort of like a mix between a crab and a shrimp? But shrimp that was cooked…..it looked sorta puffy a little shiny. On its head were two antennae, and a pair of beady black eyes. Its mouth was pointed, and Minho saw a tongue dangling out that looked a bit like a tube.

It was very bizarre, and very _creepy_. 

“What the hell?!” Minho exclaimed aloud, backing away frantically until he reached the end of his bed.

The strange creature moved forward, spindly legs scuttling across the blankets. Minho shrieked again and jumped off of his bed, running out of the room. He raced over to his travel bag, where he kept the dagger that he had made at his apprenticeship. He held it out in front of him, eyes darting around to find the creature. And then he spotted it, crawling towards him across the floor. It got closer and closer, backing Minho against the wall. Once he couldn’t move backward anymore, it was able to reach his feet and started to climb up his leg. Minho screamed and kicked it off, throwing it back across the room. The creature scuttled back, quicker than before, and then instead of crawling up, it jumped. 

Adrenaline rushed through Minho’s body as he screamed again and threw his dagger. He hit the creature dead on, the blade going into its body and it fell down to the floor. He ran back over to his bag and grabbed another dagger, using it to stab the creature over and over again, making sure it was dead. After about twenty strikes, Minho figured he was now safe. 

He took a moment to catch his breath, heart still pounding, before looking closely at this….. _thing_.

It was smooth to touch, and a bit squishy. It was about the size of a kitten, except _definitely_ not as cute. And it genuinely wasn’t like anything he had seen before. He was positive he’d learned about all the different creatures that existed from all the books he read as a young boy. What really baffled him, was how this one creature was able to kill an entire village? How did _nobody_ notice it? It made no sense.

Unless….was there more than one?

Minho swiftly stood up, pulling the first dagger out of the...bug? Crustacean? The thing. He held tightly to both daggers, then walked over to his door and opened it slightly, peeking outside. 

His eyes widened as he saw more of those crustacean-bug-things scuttling around, likely looking for more victims. They were numerous, crawling- no, _swarming_ all over the place. There had to be hundreds, maybe over a thousand.

No wonder the village died. If they only came out at night, and apparently attacked those who were asleep, then perhaps people could start dropping dead without it being obvious of who or what was killing them. And there were so many too...

You’d think they would maybe stay up at night to try and catch the killer. But, bless their souls, Minho’s village definitely hadn’t been the smartest. Or maybe the creatures were just intelligent enough to hide from human sight.

Minho sighed. What was he supposed to do now? He couldn’t stay here. Not with killer crustacean-bugs everywhere. But he couldn’t leave, also because of the crustacean-bugs crawling everywhere. 

He ended up staying up all night, sitting there at the door, watching outside to make sure no other creatures tried to come kill him. When the sun started to peek over the hilltops, the creatures all crawled away. And Minho finally relaxed.

Minho packed up everything valuable that was in his house- money, his mother’s jewelry, all the food they had stored that hadn't perished, filling his bag until it couldn’t fit anything else. He dragged his parents’ bodies outside and buried them behind the house, saying his final goodbyes. It was the least he could do. 

He then wandered to every other house, and looted them of money. And then gave the residents a proper burial. It was a fair exchange, Minho thought, their spirits would pass on and Minho would have money to travel. After he was finished saying goodbye to everyone he had ever known, Minho said one last goodbye to his village, and walked away.

  
  
  
  
  


Six years passed. 

Minho discovered, in his travels, that whatever these _things_ were, they seemed to go from village to village and were slowly making their way across the continent, a trail of bodies in their wake.

So many little villages that were plagued by a “mysterious serial killer”, when really? The creatures were the culprit. And it only started with little villages. Soon even larger towns were being affected, with the creatures slipping right under the noses of military patrols. Slipping right under the nose of basically everyone. And they seemed to be headed towards the big port cities, which were all heavily populated.

Six years, and Minho still had no idea _where_ they came from.

He had researched countless field guides and logbooks- the creature simply did not exist. No one, not even the oldest of elders, had ever heard even a single story about a bizarre creature that looked like a fusion of cooked shrimp and a spider.

Six years, and Minho only got more and more jumpy and restless, as he killed more and more and more and more of these things. He was constantly paranoid that he would get attacked in his sleep again, despite wearing a cloak with a thick hood that their mouths would not be able to penetrate. 

He certainly had reason for his paranoia- because they certainly tried to feed off of him. He would wake up with one, two or even three creatures crawling over him, and he would be quick to grab his mace and bash them to a messy pulp. And if not his mace, then his sword. Or his battle axe. Or his throwing knives. Or his beloved dagger. A couple of times, Minho even used his bow and arrows to shoot some that were approaching the doors of whatever inn he was staying at.

It took over Minho’s life. 

He couldn’t help it, he refused to let his village be the first victim of a worldwide massacre. Problem was, Minho could never get there fast enough to warn new towns about them. The creatures would have already started their infestation with each different location. Lives were still lost. Minho was able to help each town keep up a defense and eventually teach them how to protect themselves, but there were still deaths. No matter how much he whittled away at the swarm, there were always preceding casualties.

Now, he was strolling through the docks of the major port city of Shimmerpeak, thumb stroking over his mace as it rested in its hilt. He was always armed to the teeth, ready to fight at any moment. Those fuckers moved _fast_ and he needed to be prepared. So, of course, he carried six different types of weapons.

Minho had been alerted of a few mysterious deaths of some shiphands down by the docks when he arrived, so there he headed to go see if he could at the very least prevent any more attacks and kill off as many as he could. He had arrived by boat (a small rigger that he...acquired….from a man he had stumbled across that had been killed by someone, bandits probably. He was dead, so it technically wasn’t theft), and was walking around the area looking for the gate to the inner city.

"You think you've got enough weapons there? What, are you here to assassinate someone?" a voice called out from behind him.

Minho whipped around to see who was talking. It was a guy, looking at him with a half-smile and leaning against a barrel. He was wearing the typical garb of a deckworker- a simple white shirt, black pants, and a red sash wrapped around the waist- with blonde hair peeking out of the scarf tied around his head.

"I'm not here to assassinate anyone," he answered bluntly, "not a person anyways. I am, however, here to kill an impeding infestation of a deadly new species."

The man raised his eyebrows. "A new species? I didn't know there was a new species discovered. Science continues to amaze."

"It's not amazing. People are dying." Minho said, crossing his arms.

"People are always dying."

"Not like this. Entire villages have been wiped out. Towns have gotten hit, too. And they're intelligent, they know how to avoid being spotted and they kill quietly and subtly. It only takes a few days per victim, by the time it's noticed, it's already too late."

The eyebrows climb even higher.

"Oh shit. Are you with a group or anything?"

"No."

The man stared at him.

"So," he said, "you're tackling this supposed huge threat….all by yourself?"

"Yes."

"Wow. That's one hell of a death wish," the man commented, standing up straight and walking past Minho, patting his shoulder as he passed.

Minho stood there, flabbergasted.

"I- I don't have a death wish!" he called out, turning around, but the man must not have heard him because he kept walking. 

Minho shook his head and rolled his eyes. Whatever. The deckhand was an unnecessary distraction anyways. He needed to find the Earl of the city. 

He finally headed up to the gates, and asked the guards where to go to reach the citadel. The guards pointed him in the right direction, and Minho gave each of them a silver piece for their troubles before heading on his way. He walked throughout all the houses, past the market stalls and the shops, following the dirt road to the stone tower that stood in the center of everything. He walked up to the door, and stood before one of the door guards.

"I request an audience with the Earl. Is he available at all today or should I come back tomorrow?"

"Uh," one of the guards answered, "we aren't really told the schedule."

Minho rolled his eyes. Of course, they were only guards. "May I go inside? So I can request an audience?"

"With all those weapons?" the other guard asked, looking apprehensive.

"Don't worry, they won't be used," Minho scoffed, "like I'd be stupid enough to try and kill someone in power in broad daylight."

The second guard said nothing, eyes still narrowed slightly, but he opened the doors nonetheless.

"Thank you," Minho said, smiling, and like the guards at the gate, he gifted these guards a silver piece as well as he walked inside.

He walked through the front hall, looking for someone official-looking. He didn't see anyone, so he just kept walking. Soon enough, he found himself in the Great Hall of the building, the Earl sitting in a fancy chair at the other end. At least Minho guessed he was the Earl. He certainly doubted anyone else would sit in a fancy chair in a giant room if not an Earl.

"Can I help you? Most people make an appointment," the Earl said.

"Well I tried," Minho answered, "your door guards don't know your schedule. May I request an audience? Or should I come back later?"

The Earl sighed. "I guess I don't have anything at this moment, so what the hell. What do you need, stranger who is alarmingly over-armed?"

Minho rolled his eyes for the third time that day. Everyone always fixated on his weapons. He wasn't carrying _that_ many!

"Your people are in danger," he stated firmly.

"What, from you?"

" _No_ , from a new species that has appeared. It's been slowly spreading across the continent and wiping out villages, massacring towns, hiding in plain sight and attacking while you sleep. These creatures are fairly small, but sneakily lethal. You have to protect yourselves."

The Earl paused for a moment. Then burst out laughing.

"A new species? Don't be ridiculous, we've already discovered every species that exists. And if there were mass amounts of death, someone in the kingdom would have alerted me. Take your tall tales elsewhere, and don't waste my time."

Minho grit his teeth.

"You don't understand! I'm _not_ making this up! I lost my village to them! The villages I escaped to were also attacked and people were killed! Entire families, entire communities! You and your people are in grave danger!"

"Take him away. I don't need to hear this foolishness," the Earl said, looking down at his hands with disinterest. Two pairs of hands grabbed Minho's arms and started dragging him out of the room.

"Your people are going to _die_ ," Minho spat as he was tugged away, "you're a _fool_ and their blood will be on _your_ hands."

And then he was promptly kicked out of the doors. 

Literally. 

They kicked him down onto the steps.

His butt sore and his pride even sorer, Minho stormed back down the steps and back into town. This was why he hated politicians.

Maybe he could try his luck with the townspeople. He'd done that before, gotten enough support to convince the town's leader to take the threat seriously.

As Minho headed down the road passing by the shops, he saw what looked like a beggar keeled over. Looked nearly dead, was probably dehydrated. Poor bloke.

He walked over and pulled out his bottle that he kept in his pocket, trying to see if he could give the person a drink. As he got closer, he noticed something red. A wound at the back of the neck.

Shit. It was one thing to hear about the deaths of dock workers, who usually lived just outside of cities, but this meant that the creatures had started attacking inside the city. This was _not_ good.

Now feeling more urgent, Minho stopped at each stall, went into each shop. He shared his warning to anyone who would listen. 

They brushed him aside, they called him foolish, they called him deluded, said he was lying, said he was just trying to cause panic. Minho wanted to rip his hair out. What were these people not getting?! Why the hell would Minho make something up while being heavily armed the way he was?! Idiots. All of them. 

Eventually, Minho got incredibly frustrated and gave up, walking back to the docks and hoping the sea breeze would help clear his mind. He sat on top of a barrel, closed his eyes, and let the calm sounds of the waves overtake his senses.

"Uh, excuse me. Do you mind moving? I kinda need that barrel."

Minho cracked open one eye at the familiar sounding voice, blinking them both open when he saw that it was the same guy from before. He had now taken off his scarf, revealing his blonde hair to be fluffy and curly.

"Oh. Apologies, I'll move," Minho answered, pushing himself off of the barrel. The blonde man then picked up the barrel and held it over his head, carrying it away towards a ship that had a whole crew of other workers loading things into it. Minho guessed it was a cargo ship, transporting goods back and forth between the mainland of Telandry and the Navaa islands of the southwest. 

Minho sat back down in the spot the barrel was before, getting lost in thought trying to figure out how he was going to deal with this issue. If he took one of the dead bodies of a creature back to the Earl, that was irrefutable evidence that he wasn't making it up. But that would mean having to wait until the next day, and people might already be on their last night before they died. 

But then again, Minho was likely going to have to have a killing spree anyways, so it would probably work out in the end. If he distracted the group, maybe they wouldn't attack the citizens. But also the city was fairly large, would all of them even be alerted of his presence? How would he know if he had the whole group focused on him?

Minho let out a sigh. This was getting so complicated.

"Something on your mind?" 

Minho jumped in his spot as that _same guy_ was once again talking to him.

"Why are you back here?" Minho asked.

The guy shrugged. "You look intriguing. And I want to find out why you dress in a way that is so intriguing."

"Intriguing?"

"Yeah. Intriguing. Name's Chan by the way." the man that was apparently named Chan said. 

"I'm Minho…"

"So what are all the weapons for? And it's pretty warm out, aren't you sweating in that thick cloak?"

Minho adjusted said cloak, pulling his hood forward a bit.

"It's for protection," he answered, "and the weapons are so I can kill on a moment's notice."

"You draw a bow and arrow at a moment's notice? I don't know a ton about weapons, but I do know that a bow isn't really suited for close combat."

"I don't use that one very often. Usually it's to defend from afar, picking away at the enemy as they crawl forward."

"Does that work?"

"It does….until I run out of arrows."

"So why not work with someone else?"

Minho let out a huff. "I would need a whole damn _army_ to have enough people to destroy these things. But the one person so far who has access to an army thinks I'm making the whole thing up."

"Who, the Earl? Oh yeah he's a stuck up asshole. Good luck getting him to do anything useful. For what it's worth though, I believe you."

"Thanks. Fat lot of good it does, but at least _someone_ doesn't think I'm crazy."

"Hey, how about we go get a bite to eat? You can tell me about the rest of your knives and stuff. Like the little ones across your chest, and the weird ball shaped thing at your hip," Chan offered.

"You mean my throwing knives? And my mace?"

"Yeah! Those! Come on let's go, I'm starving."

Chan dragged Minho to a tavern near the city gates, ordering them both a pint of ale and a goat's leg.

Mouth full of food, Chan just gestured to Minho's entire ensemble. Minho snorted, but began to explain.

"The sash across my chest holds my throwing knives, I keep my bow and my axe on my back, my arrows are at my hip, my dagger is also at my chest, and my mace is at my other hip. The throwing knives are good for slight distance, when something is either getting close or trying to get away. The mace and axe are typical weapons, the mace does crushing damage and the axe slices. This axe is a war axe, which is a little bit smaller than a battle axe, so I can wield it one-handed. I often use both at the same time, they're my favorites. The bow is, of course, for long distance problems. And the dagger is for melee or getting out of a sticky situation."

Chan nodded appreciatively, swallowing with a large gulp.

"So how do you know so much? You're practically an expert," he commented.

Minho couldn't help but puff his chest out a bit.

"I _am_ an expert. I was an apprentice under a highly skilled weaponsmith for three years. I know all there is to know about weaponry, what each item does, how to make them, how to grade them, how much to sell them for, what metals are high quality and what metals are useless."

"That's really impressive!" Chan said, "I only have a simple knife. It's for cutting rope mainly, but it comes in handy on the occasion that someone tries to rob me."

"May I?" Minho asked, holding out his hand. Chan nodded and pulled out his knife, handing it over for him to look at.

Minho examined it closely. It was a solid steel, good handle, he could tell it was fairly well used but was still sharp and well taken care of. 

"This is a good knife," he stated, handing it back.

"So another question," Chan continued, "why are you so determined to kill these creature things? Why not just let people fend for themselves? And if they die, well, so be it?"

Minho sighed, looking down at his plate.

"When I got home from my apprenticeship, I came back to an empty village. Everyone was dead. And it was because of those _monsters_ . I don't want anyone else to have to go through that. And they wouldn't, if they could just be _precautionary_ -"

"Have you ever been tempted to give up? Just sail away and leave it all behind? Start a new life and forget about all of this?"

Minho blinked at Chan. That was….a pretty heavy question.

"I mean, sometimes it feels overwhelming. But I know I'm doing the right thing. I'll stop when I'm dead," he replied.

Chan smiled. "Very noble! I respect that in a man. If you want any help, I'll fight with you."

"You don't have the utilities," Minho said, "but the offer is appreciated." 

"That's okay! I'll just borrow one of yours!"

Minho laughed, loudly. "No."

"No?"

"Absolutely not. These are my children. No one touches them but me." 

"Well alright, guess I'll just….knife them to death. Wait, how do you even kill them?" Chan questioned.

"Oh it's not too difficult," Minho responded, "any excessive wounding and they'll go down. I find stomping them into the dirt to be especially satisfying. Or stabbing them through their heads."

"And what do they look like?" Chan questioned further, taking a gulp of ale as he waited for Minho to answer.

Minho thought for a moment, trying to choose the right words to fit.

"They have legs that are like...a spider? But there's six, and they're very spindly. And they have antennae. They're about the size of a kitten, and the body looks...like cooked shrimp. But flat. And brown."

"....what."

"And they have a mouth that's pointy, with a really long tongue that they plunge up into your skull, I'm guessing up to your brain. And they feed on your blood, until your brain shuts down from a lack of it and you die."

"What?!" 

Chan looked quite alarmed. Minho didn't blame him, he had reacted the same way when he first figured out how the creatures killed.

"They're hard to describe, but they're creepy. And deadly. And intelligent, they hide in the shadows, crawl in windows and tuck themselves into corners. You really have to get them in the open to have an easy shot."

"I guess…" Chan began, "I guess I'll have to see one myself then. Or- wait- I _did_ see something scuttle away into the bushes the other day, near the cabins I stay in. I thought it was a weird looking animal, but maybe it wasn't."

Minho had been focusing on eating his own food, but at Chan's words his head snapped up, dropping the turkey leg down on the plate.

"You what."

"I remember seeing really thin legs, I know that."

Minho narrowed his eyes slightly.

"It'll be back," he warned, "cover your neck."

"My neck?"

Minho nodded. "That's where they attack." He leaned forward and reached back behind Chan's neck. "Right at the base of the- how long have you had this wound?"

Chan looked confused. "What wound?" 

Minho pulled his hand away and grabbed Chan's face, looking him over.

"Do you feel lethargic? Fatigued? Experiencing memory loss or loss of limb function?"

"No??? I'm fine."

"You'll live then, it's probably only the first or second night they've fed off of you."

Chan shot his own hand to the spot, eyes wide. 

Minho continued, "be careful walking around at night, seal your doors and windows, check every corner in case one is already in your home. And put a bandage on, it may not hurt now but an infected wound will be a nightmare to deal with. I should probably get going…. it's starting to get late, and I'm the only line of defense tonight. It was nice meeting you, thanks for the meal."

"Uh, yeah," Chan said dumbly, still holding his neck as Minho stood up and finished his ale, "good luck, uh, killing I guess." 

Minho walked out of the tavern and back into the streets, heading towards the entrance of the gates. If the creatures had started over by the docks, then they would be heading into the city this way. He tried to find a tree to climb up and shoot some from afar, but there wasn't one.

Oh well, time to sneak up to the top of the wall he supposed.

He walked down the side of it, looking for an area that had enough stones sticking out to use as footholds. Once he found a spot, he started to climb. It took quite a while, and he fell once (his ass was seriously taking a beating today), but he managed to get up to the top and pull himself over. He walked to the inner edge of the small walkway that was usually used by soldiers to patrol or fight off sieges, and looked over the city. Oh yeah, this was a good spot. He could see way better and this would help him spot which homes would be attacked so he could jump into action. Or see where the swarm would come from, so he could jump into action. In some way, creatures were going to die tonight. This was going to be some great management of his frustrations.

Atop the wall, Minho leaned against the edge and waited, watching the sun go down on the horizon. He watched as people headed into their homes. He watched the soldiers at the gate switch to the next shift. He was surprised that no one had noticed him up here, since he definitely wasn’t supposed to be on top of the wall. 

He waited, and waited, and waited. 

It was dark. The city was quiet. Then, Minho heard some distant rustling behind him. He stood up and ran over to the other edge of the wall, looking out from the city. It took him a moment to see what was making the sound, but then he spotted it. Movement in the bushes, and a more focused look yielded the movement of something. Several somethings. Many somethings. The creatures were here. 

The guards had not even noticed the movement happening barely a few meters away from their line of sight. But Minho was not surprised, this always happened. These fuckers were smart, after all. 

But not as smart as Minho.

He looked down, waiting patiently as they crawled up the side of the wall. Without a sound, he pulled out his axe. Pulled out his mace. And then as the first few creature reached the top of the wall, Minho attacked.

With his axe alone he sliced them, one after another, taking out a good twenty that tried to pass him on the right. The sound of Minho fighting must have alerted soldiers, as he heard footsteps come running closer, and voices calling out “who's there?” and “what’s going on?” The sound momentarily distracted Minho, and the swarm started crawling past him. Shit, now he’d have to go down into the city and fight. The soldiers ran up to Minho, and froze at the sight of him surrounded by about sixty dead creatures.

“Show these to your Earl,” Minho said, “maybe then he’ll believe me.”

And then he pushed past the dumbstruck guards and ran to the nearest staircase to get down from the wall. Once he was inside the city again, he scanned around, looking for where the swarm had gone. He spotted them after a few seconds; they were already starting to spread out and go feed. Feed on the helpless, unknowing villagers as they slept. Minho ran forwards, heading right for the swarm. He let out a battle cry, grabbing their attention. And the real fight began; One vs. Who the fuck knows how many. But Minho could dual wield, and they had an evolutionary flaw of being small and easy to kill. This was going to be like numerous other nights, where he would whittle down the population, killing until the sun rose or the rest retreated.

The first of the swarm lunged at him, and it got smashed with the mace. Another tried to crawl up his leg- he shook it off and stomped it into the ground, crushing its head. He sheathed his axe for a moment and pulled out his throwing knives, using them to take out seven in a row. He felt one crawling up his back, but it was swiftly taken care of with his dagger. Minho was pretty sure he accidentally stabbed himself a little bit, but oh well. He’d check for it later. Dagger re-sheathed, Minho grabbed his axe again and went back to slicing, back to mace smashing, completely going to _town_.

Then he heard someone yelling from the side, and glanced over to see what it was. There was Chan, running forward and wielding his little knife. What the fuck? What an idiot! But he did distract the attention of a good bunch of the creatures, which Minho used to his advantage, taking out a whole line of them at once. 

However, as the creatures scuttled over to Chan, he started to panic as they crawled up onto him. He shook a few off his legs but they were on his arms, on his back, on his chest, and one was about to pierce his neck.

Minho grabbed his dagger again (swiftly tucking his mace in its strap) and threw it, taking out the creature that was about to make Chan its meal.

“Just keep shaking them off!” Minho yelled out, “they cling but not that tightly! You can pull them off pretty quickly!”

“O-okay!” Chan responded, still freaked out. He wasn’t being very successful, and the majority of the swarm was now headed towards him, rather than Minho- an easier target now found.

Minho rolled his eyes, pulling out his mace again and ran over to Chan, helping him pull off all the creatures. Each one Minho pulled off he sliced in half or smashed to the ground.

“You’re an idiot,” Minho said, but held out his mace. “Anything happens to this, and I will behead you.”

“G-got it,” Chan replied, “uh what do I- _ahh get off get off!_ \- how do I use this?”

“Swing and smash. That’s it.”

Minho turned back, pulled off the bugs that had been crawling up his body while he was standing still, and then went back to work. He only had his axe now, so he wasn’t as effective, but he still kept up his kill streak. Chan seemed to get the hang of the mace pretty quickly, and was actually pretty powerful with it. He was still panicky with his movements, but soon enough bodies started to surround him. Minho killed a good thirty or forty more, and then the swarm seemed to realize they were overpowered once again. They started to crawl away, back out of the wall and into the foliage.

Minho chased them all the way out, still smashing the ones that lagged behind. Which were quite a few. All in all, he deemed it a pretty successful night- he got rid of a good hundred at least. There were still around a thousand left, but maybe if they kept coming back, and he got military support from the Earl, the swarm could be taken out entirely. 

Smiling to himself, Minho sheathed his axe and went back to find his throwing knives and put them away too.

“Hey uh, that sure was pretty crazy.” Chan was still there, holding Minho’s mace and panting heavily, a pile of dead creatures around him. “How often do you do this? And for how long?”

Minho walked over to where Chan stood, holding out his hand for Chan to give him his mace back.

“Oh, several nights at a time, until the people in charge actually start to do something about the threat. I’ve managed to kill about a third of the whole population at this point, but it's taken six years and I alone can only do so much. I can never guarantee they won’t try to come back after I leave. Which is why towns and cities need to know how to defend themselves. These things aren’t extremely intelligent, but they’re smart enough to realize when they’re outmatched. If there’s a constant guard that knows how to spot and fight these things, then they won’t be able to slip by and attack. And if citizens can keep their homes inaccessible, then the creatures won’t be able to feed even if they do slip in.”

“I see. Thanks for saving me, by the way,” Chan said, smiling at Minho.

Minho smiled back. “Consider it payback for the meal you bought me. Also you’re seriously really fucking stupid, charging in like that. I had it under control.”

“But another set of hands did help, did it not?” 

“Hm. We’ll never know, will we? Now help me find my knives.”

After the sun started to rise, and citizens started to come outside, they saw the dead creatures scattered across the ground. Understandably, they freaked out. Minho grabbed a bunch and put them into a bag, then went back up to the citadel and dumped the bag out right in front of the Earl. Who also freaked out, screaming “what in hell’s creation are those?!”

“Still think I’m telling tall tales?” Minho asked, heavy snark in his voice.

“Okay, okay I believe you. But what are they??”

“The threat to your people. They will slowly kill the citizens, unless you do something about it. I can teach you what defenses to use, but after that you’re on your own, I have to move on to the next city.”

The Earl swallowed nervously. “Okay, tell me everything you know. And please, take this compensation, as an apology for not believing you.”

He had a servant bring over a large bag filled with coins. Minho smiled brightly at him.

“Why thank you, this is most appreciated,” Minho said, and cleared his throat before he started his explanation. “Now, these creatures are small and hard to spot, they’re a brown color that helps them blend into the dirt. You have to watch for movement in order to spot them…”

  
  
  
  
  


It took several hours to lay out everything, but the Earl actually listened with apt attention. And had the head soldiers listen to, in order to teach the rest of the city guard. By the time Minho was finished, it was well into the afternoon. The Earl thanked him profusely for sharing his wisdom (the creatures really must have freaked him out), and promised that were Minho to return at any time he would be given the highest quality treatment as an esteemed guest. Minho was definitely going to take full advantage of that- royalty level treatment? Yes please. It was about time he started to be appreciated for all that he did.

After Minho left the citadel, he walked back to the docks, where his small rigger was. He yawned, his lack of sleep from the night before starting to catch up to him. He would have to take a nap once he was out at sea.

When he got to his boat, he was surprised to see someone sitting right next to it. It was Chan.

“This one’s yours, right? I know the usual cargo ships, and this one I didn’t recognize,” Chan said.

“What are you doing here?” Minho questioned.

Chan tilted his head slightly, as if confused. “Well, coming with you, of course.”

“What? No.” Minho declined bluntly.

“Why not? I’m not a bad fighter, I could help you!” Chan tried to argue.

“I don’t need a companion,” Minho said, crossing his arms.

“Come onnnn I’m great company!”

“I’m starting to doubt that.”

"I know how to fish."

"Everyone knows how to fish, it's easy."

“I can sing!”

“No.”

“I know a lot about sailing.”

“I know enough to get by.”

“I can lift and carry things, I’m very strong.”

“It’s still no.”

Minho started to walk past Chan, and jump onto his boat when Chan spoke up again.

“I can cook. Really well, actually.”

Minho paused, turning back to look at the other man. He did not know how to cook, he usually just burned a fish and hoped for the best. It never tasted good. Never.

“How well is really well?” he asked, narrowing his eyes slightly.

Hope spread across Chan’s face. “I can make stews, roasts, soups, pies, just give me the ingredients and I can make you a hearty and delicious meal. I even brought some vegetables and bread.” He held up the sack that had been slung over his shoulder.

Minho stayed still, mulling it over.

“.......fine. You can come. But the moment you become more of a nuisance than a help, I’m throwing you overboard.”

Chan chuckled, “I mean you can try, I know how to swim.”

“Whatever. Just get on board before I change my mind. I want to get going as soon as possible.”

“Aye aye...uh...captain?”

“Just Minho is fine,” Minho said, rolling his eyes. He had a feeling he was going to be rolling his eyes a lot with Chan around.

Chan eagerly hopped onto the boat, and Minho untied the rope that kept it in place at the dock, and pulled up the anchor. He headed up to the wheel to steer, and Chan had immediately sprung into action, adjusting the sails to catch a big gust of wind that pushed them out of the harbor. 

Soon enough, they were out on the sea.

Sailing was boring. Minho usually took the time to clean off his weapons, or just sleep. Sometimes he watched the clouds float through the sky.

Now, he had someone else on the boat. Chan was….he was something. The first day into their journey, he sat right next to Minho (who was watching clouds) and said brightly “let’s play a question game!”

“A what?” Minho asked, sitting up.

“A question game,” Chan repeated, ”We just take turns asking each other questions.”

“...why?”

“To get to know each other of course! I barely know a thing about you.”

“Okay...so we just swap questions back and forth? When does it end?”

“Whenever we want to end it. Here, let me go first,” explained Chan, “what is your endgame?”

Minho looked at him, confused. “What do you mean?”

“Ah! Still my turn. But I’ll elaborate. You said you’re on this mission to kill all those creatures. Are you just going to keep killing and killing until they’re all dead? Don’t they reproduce? This seems like an infinite game of cat and mouse, except you’re a man with a plethora of sharp things and these creatures are apparently all over the place.”

“I think there’s a nest, some kind of source,” Minho answered, “they had to come from somewhere, right? Once I’ve spread word around to the rest of the cities and towns, I’ll eventually go back and try to find it. See if I can destroy it, or destroy any eggs, or whatever. One I get rid of that, they can’t multiply and it’ll just be whittling down the rest of them until they’re gone. Which I plan to do, no matter how long it takes.”

“I see,” Chan said, “We should give them a name. Calling them ‘the creatures’ all the time is getting exhausting.”

“How about ‘murder mystery creatures that are murdering dicks’?”

“Too long. I’m thinking ‘shriders’.”

“Shriders? That’s a stupid name,” Minho argued.

“It’s a combination of shrimp and spider!” Chan said, looking very proud of himself, “that’s how you described them, right? And you’re right, that is what they look like. I think it’s fitting.”

“It’s stupid.”

“Agree to disagree. Anyways, it’s your question.”

Minho held his finger to his chin, thinking about what to ask. What did he even want to know? He looked Chan over, and then his eyes zeroed in on a scar that ran through Chan’s left eyebrow.

“Your scar,” he said, “how did you get it?”

“Oh this?” Chan questioned, pointing to it, “accident. A rope snapped and the end whipped across my face and cut me. Damn near took my eye out. Unsurprisingly, we started using thicker ropes after that. Ummmmm do you like men?”

Minho’s face heated up. “Wha- what the hell kind of question is that??” he sputtered.

“A serious one! I want to know!” Chan countered, “if it helps, I like men. I like both men and women. I think there’s features on both that are quite attractive. So…?”

Minho looked down at his hands, feeling nervous. He’d never really thought about who he was attracted to….romance had never been very high on his priorities.

But there was that one boy he had worked with during his apprenticeship, a boy that Minho often found himself staring at. That boy had been very easy on the eyes.

“I guess...I don’t know, there was a boy I liked looking at when I was younger. So...yes? I never dwelled on it. Romance isn’t my focus in life. How did you know? That you liked women and men?”

“Is that your question?” Chan asked, and Minho nodded, “well, for starters I work with a lot of men. There’s only so many times you can catch yourself staring at someone else before you realize that it’s more than simple admiration. And I’ve always liked the ladies I’d see at different ports. With their flowy skirts and soft hair and pretty faces. The women back home were especially fine.”

“Back home?” Minho questioned, but Chan wagged his finger.

“Nope! It’s my turn. Did you make all your weapons yourself, or did you buy them? And can you make me one?”

Minho thumbed his mace instinctively. “I made the axe, dagger, and throwing knives. And I made a sword too, that sits in my room. The mace I bought, along with the bow and arrows. As for you...we can buy something at the next city when we get there. Now, my turn- where are you from?”

“The southwest isles of Navaa,” Chan answered, “I came here several years ago, on a boat- unsurprising, I’m sure- seeking adventure and fortune. I’ve lived here in Telandry ever since, but I still speak the Navaan language fluently. Did you grow up here?”

Minho nodded, “I grew up in a small village far east from the coasts of Mananti. Out on the northern edge of the Plains. It was still in Telandry though, well within the border.”

Just then, the wind started to pick up, and Chan put their game on pause as he went to go adjust the sails. Minho headed up to check the map, and make sure they were still on course.

Later on, Minho examined Chan’s build to see what kind of weapon would suit him. He dragged his hands across the man’s body (while said man kept squirming and giggling because “that tickles!”). Chan was definitely quite bulky. Solid muscles, especially in the back, the arms, the chest, the core. Just overall very solid. Minho may have lingered a bit in some areas (the chest, mainly the chest). But it was all for the examination! Not for any other reason!

“Are you going to keep groping my pecs or are you going to tell me what weapon I should use?” Chan spoke up, raising an eyebrow.

Minho jerked his hands away, face burning. “Right. Um. A warhammer would work. You could probably also learn to use my sword, since I certainly don’t use it.”

“Cool!” Chan said cheerfully, “I’ve always wanted to learn swordplay, actually. This is a childhood dream come true. Can we start now?”

“Woah, let’s not get too eager. I need to figure out how I’m going to teach you. I’m a weapons maker, not a weapons trainer.”

Chan pouted, but accepted with a sigh.

A few days later, they reached the next port city, docking in the bay at the edge of the docks. Chan tied the boat to a post while Minho lowered the anchor, and they hopped off and headed into the city. Minho did his best to spread warnings about the…….shriders.

“See, it’s a stupid name, Chan!” Mino griped, after the blacksmith they were trying to talk to laughed so hard he had to lean against his anvil for support.

“You come up with something better then!” Chan griped back, before sticking out his tongue like a child.

Minho just shoved him, making him fall onto his ass. Minho chuckled to himself, before he got harshly shoved back, Chan standing over him while being the one who was now laughing. They called a temporary truce.

They weren’t very successful with their warnings, but Minho also didn’t hear of any weird deaths, so he was elated to know that they had beaten the creatures for once.

“The shriders.”

“Shut up, Chan.”

One thing they also found was a library. Minho was even more elated, maybe he could find something in there that had even the smallest bit of information about where these things came from. He scoured through every book that even touched on the subject, but once again, nothing. Absolutely nothing.

“Oh hey, check out this really really old book! Wait- hey Minho come here,” Chan called out to him, and Minho looked up to see Chan waving him over, eyes glued to some old journal that looked so old it was falling apart. Minho walked over, to get a closer look at what had Chan so enraptured.

“Look there,” said Chan, pointing to a drawing on the open page, “doesn’t that look like a shrider?”

Minho looked at the drawing. It was a sketch of a creature that had a squarish body, six legs, and a long tongue- holy shit.

“What does it say? I can’t read this language,” Minho muttered, trying to make sense of the weird letters that were scribbled across the page.

“Um, something about a...ice brick? Oh maybe it’s a glacier,” Chan said, and Minho stared at him in surprise.

“You can read it??” He exclaimed.

“Yeah, kinda. Looks like an ancient form of Navaan. I can’t understand it perfectly, but I get the gist of what it’s saying,” Chan answered, still looking at the journal.

Minho furrowed his brows, “what’s a Navaan journal doing all the way up here?”

“You didn’t know? Telandry used to be home to the Navaan. I remember learning it in school. The Navaan people originally settled the mainland and the islands, and then were driven out to the islands by invaders from the East centuries ago. Look at the date up in the corner- that's the previous millenia. This thing is around a thousand years old…” Chan explained.

“And yet it’s this well preserved...what else does it say?”

“Ummmm….looks like whoever wrote this found it….in the ice. While..uh...that part doesn’t make sense. Hm. Okay. It was found in ice, in a glacier I’m guessing, and there were several. The journalist didn’t know what they were either, guessed it was a fossilized creature from ancient times. At least, that's what I think it says? Could also say that it was flossing material. I’m guessing it’s the former.”

Minho blinked several times.

“So...someone from a thousand years ago...they didn’t even know what it was?”

“Yup.”

“Well shit. If these things are from a time way before our ancestors, no wonder there isn’t anything about them in even the earliest history books. Anything else?”

Chan scanned over the page. “Not really. Nothing that’s clear to read at least.”

He tried turning a page, but the paper was so fragile he just lay it back in place. Didn’t want to ruin it. There wasn’t anything else they could use anyways, if the creatures were in ice, then there wouldn’t be any information on if there was a nest or how to get rid of them for good.

Satisfied with what they had, Minho and Chan walked back out into the streets, walking by the shops. Minho took Chan to the weapons shop, where he found a warhammer that was the perfect size and weight. Chan twirled it around in his hold, with a glint in his eyes and a grin on his face that made something in Minho’s chest flutter a little. He ignored it.

“Okay, I feel super powerful with this,” Chan remarked, and Minho couldn’t help but chuckle at his excitement.

They headed up to the citadel to give the Earl of this city the warnings. This time, Minho thought ahead and brought a body of a shrider with him (okay the name was still stupid, but he was warming up to it). With the evidence to prove his statements, he was believed immediately, although this Earl was less panicked about safety and more cautious about whether or not the creatures- the shriders- were going to get into the tower.

“I don’t want to die,” he had whimpered, looking terrified.

“Well, if you know how to fight them, you won’t die. Nor will your people,” Minho explained.

Chan actually came in handy- the man was incredibly charming, and was able to reassure everyone that there was no need to panic.

“Everyone will be _fine_ ,” he said, “just follow Minho’s instructions closely. He really knows what he’s doing.”

That night, Minho walked out past the walls to wait for the swarm to arrive. He knew they were coming. Chan waited with him.

They came. Minho fought. Chan fought, equipped with his new weapon. The soldiers, freshly trained, fought. Dozens were killed. He had to save Chan a couple of times, but he was starting to really get the hang of it already. Hundreds more were swept away. The rest of the shriders had once against met their match, and scuttled away. There was a bigger cut into the total, Minho was very pleased to see how many they had crushed. He was getting closer and closer to his goal. After the shriders were gone, Chan let out a whoop and lifted Minho up in the air, twirling him around. Minho, not expecting such an action, went rigid in Chan’s hold, cheeks warm with surprise and embarrassment.

That. Well. That was something.

  
  


There were many interesting things to learn about Chan. 

First of all, he was indeed an amazing cook. Minho had never had such delicious meals since he was a child back in his village. 

Second of all, he liked to sing while he worked with the sails or cleaned the deck. Various repetitive tunes that he called ‘sea shanties’, he said he had learned them on the cargo ships he used to work on. They were tales of being out at sea, or pretty girls that the singer met onshore, or lovers that were left behind. Cheesy things, really. But Chan loved them, he sang them so often that within a week, Minho was starting to learn the words.

However, Chan was also a flirtatious little shit, and started swapping out the names of the girls in the songs with Minho’s name, to the man’s chagrin and embarrassment.

The seventh time Chan sang about the lovely Minho instead of the lovely Molly, he had to speak up.

“Those aren’t the words, Chan!” he fussed, and Chan paused in his singing to laugh loudly, “and I am not a fair maiden!”

Still giggling, Chan just ignored Minho and kept singing, as he loosened the ropes, allowing the sail to billow out more and catch more wind. Not long after, he changed the lyrics _again_ , and Minho really couldn’t take any more of this. He stormed over to the man, arms crossed and a scowl on his face.

“Cut that out!” he complained, “I know those songs aren’t about me!.”

Chan started laughing again, “aw come on, you sure you aren’t the fairest maiden?”

“I’m not a maiden!”

“But you didn’t deny being the fairest.”

“I-I’m not that either!”

“Oh! You hesitated! You _do_ know that you’re good looking!”

Minho had nothing else to say in response, so he just huffed and walked away, face burning. Stupid Chan and his stupid flirty singing.

“You’re really annoying,” he complained, turning back to give Chan a glare.

Chan just winked at him. “That’s my charm~”

After a few weeks of traveling together, Minho started to discover a dilemma. See, he had begun noticing…….things.

New things.

Things like the way the wind would tousle Chan’s hair _just so_ to make it look like the blonde curls were dancing around his face.

Or the freckles that would pop up on his face after he spent all day in the sun, whether at the market, or on the boat.

Or how soothing his voice actually was, when he sang lullabies to himself at night. Minho always found himself dozing off much quicker when he listened to Chan’s singing.

Or how whenever he smiled (which was often, he was a very cheerful person), there were small dimples that appeared on his cheeks. Dimples that were kind of cute.

Or how nice his laughter was, and it was something Minho heard often because Chan seemed to find Minho’s bluntness _hilarious_ for some reason. 

And he knew already how fit Chan was, but he certainly got a vivid reminder on a particularly hot day when Chan took his _goddamn shirt off_ to swab the deck. Minho, try as he might, couldn’t keep his eyes away; subconsciously licking his lips as he gazed at the sweat dripping down Chan’s torso.

It had only been three weeks, get a _grip_ Minho! He needed to stay focused on the more important mission! And not get distracted by curly hair and dreamy smiles and a voice like honey….Chan was going to be the death of Minho, he just knew it.

One night, as Minho was about to drift off to sleep, another one of Chan's soft melodies floating through the air, he realized something.

He bolted upright.

"Glaciers," he said.

"What? Why are you thinking about glaciers?"

"Several miles north from my village, there's a glacier," Minho began to explain, "it was from an old era where snow covered the world, but now it was slowly melting. For decades, it has been melting. If these things were found in ice a thousand years ago, they could have melted and escaped. Survived. Multiplied. Right under our noses. We didn't really travel up there because there wasn't really any need; to think there was such a threat that was building and we had no idea…."

"Really? So it must have really started with your village then. And if we go back we could find the glacier and get to their nest or whatever it is. Might be a burrow," Chan commented.

"My village was the first one attacked…..I guess I really do have to go home to really eliminate these shriders."

He heard the rustling of Chan laying back down.

"Well," Chan said, more quietly, "would be nice to see where you grew up."

Minho blinked. "Why? It's empty."

"Just…. reasons."

That really didn't answer Minho's question, but Chan had begun to sing again, so he just lay back down and tried again to fall asleep.

  
  


After another few days, Minho had finally planned out how he was going to teach Chan how to fight with a sword. He made a list of all the things he remembered learning, and figured he would just go down said list. He wrote down 'stance, swing, holding the sword, strikes, parries, defence'. Minho figured that was a good start to get the basics down, and he walked over to his sword- which was sheathed and resting in the corner by his bed- and picked it up. He also picked up his mace, and walked outside, calling Chan over.

"So let's teach you some swordplay," Minho said, and held out his sword, "here, for you to borrow. And I mean _borrow_ , if you lose it or break it I _will_ slit your throat. You got that?"

Chan just snorted. "Nah, you wouldn't. You'd miss me too much."

"You really wanna test that theory?" Minho challenged, unamused. Chan sobered up at his expression.

"I promise I won't let anything happen to it," he promised, taking it from Minho's hands. He unsheathed the blade, and tucked the scabbard in the sash he had tied around his hips.

"Alright," Minho began, "first, is how you hold it. To start, you should use both hands, but eventually you will be able to wield it one-handed."

"I'm holding you to that," Chan said, grinning, "get it? Holding?"

Minho sighed, ignoring his absolutely terrible pun, and kept talking.

"Here, watch how my hands are holding my mace, and place your hands in the same way."

Chan did as Minho instructed, copying the placement of Minho's hands with his own hands on the sword.

"Good. Next is stance. Hold the sword out in front of you and stay still, I'll fix your foot position and posture."

Minho put his mace away and walked closer to Chan, who again did as instructed. He looked over how Chan was standing, and could see all sort of things that needed fixing. Minho harshly yanked Chan's shoulders back, kicked his feet further apart, roughly jerked his arms up higher. It was entirely instructional, yet Chan still managed to find a way to be flirtatious.

"You know normally I have a meal with someone before I let them feel me up like this," he said. 

Minho stared at him blankly. "You bought me a meal the day we met, Chan."

Surprisingly, Chan blushed, his ears turning an especially bright shade of red that stuck out against his blonde hair. 

"Oh, uh, y-yeah. It was- it was just a joke…" he stammered, and Minho definitely did _not_ find it cute. 

Instead, he told Chan to stand straighter.

Now that Chan had the stance and was holding the weapon correctly, it was time to teach him how to use it. Pulling out his mace again, Minho stepped back a little bit on the dock, and told Chan "alright, come attack me."

Chan looked a little wary to be given such a command, but eventually rushed forward and swung at Minho. Swiftly, Minho knocked the sword out of his hands.

"Try again," Minho said, "grip it tighter. And try to pay attention to how I move and how I parry your strike. Shriders may be easy to kill, but a human enemy isn't going to go easy on you."

Chan walked over to where the sword had clattered and picked it up, walking over to where he had stood before. Then he moved forward again and swang again, this time at a different angle, Minho moved to block him again and it took a few strikes before he knocked the sword out of Chan's hands again.

They sparred again and again and again, Chan getting more and more strikes each time before Minho, inevitably, knocked the sword to the deck. Then as Chan was running towards Minho again, sword swinging down and Minho's mace swinging up to block it, the ship hit a large wave and started to rock, making them both stumble and the sword nearly stabbed Minho in the face, barely missing him and still slicing across his cheek. After they regained their stance, Minho held a hand to his cheek- which stung and began to bleed- and looked at Chan, dumbfounded.

"I'm so sorry," Chan apologized.

"You cut me," Minho stated.

"It was an accident!"

"I don't know if I'm more angry or impressed." 

"Uh, I vote impressed."

"I'm still going to make you pay for it. My face is marred forever. This is going to scar." 

"I said I was sorry!!"

Minho sighed, "well I suppose I'm partially to blame, I should have known a boat wouldn't be an ideal place to train. We're done for today, please hand me my sword back."

"On the bright side, it'll match mine," Chan suggested, "couple scars!"

Minho gave him a dead stare, feeling his cheeks heat up.

"I hate you," he said, "please stop talking."

Chan just burst into laughter.

  
  


At the next city they stopped at, Minho bought a couple of wooden swords, the kinds that Pages and children used to learn swordplay. He figured it was a safer option, wouldn't want any other injuries. Minho also found a spot by the water to train, as the sand would be good to break falls. And he knew that Chan would be falling a lot.

Minho then went to the citadel and did his usual "hey there's a new killer species coming, we need to fight them off and I need your army" speech to the city's Earl. Turns out word had started to spread, and the Earl had been informed that Minho was on his way. His story was now more believable, and people were actually taking the situation seriously from the start. Now they just had to wait for the shriders to appear, so they could further cut down the swarm.

As they waited for nightfall, Minho took Chan to the little "training area" and tossed him one of the wooden swords.

"You remember your stance and how to hold it?" he asked, and Chan nodded. "Good. Just like before, come attack me."

"Shouldn't you like, show me how to swing?" Chan questioned.

Minho gave him a confused look, "there isn't really any right or wrong way to swing? Well, I guess you don't want to leave yourself open for a counterattack….okay I'll show you some techniques that I learned."

They ended up spending the day on swing techniques, Minho showing Chan the example and Chan copying him. He was a fast learner, which Minho was very impressed by. And he would have a cute little scowl on his face when he was focused. That Minho certainly did not pay attention to. Nope. Definitely not. Never. He absolutely did not stare at his arms either. 

As the sun set, Minho figured Chan had enough basic knowledge to use the sword in the shriders, and suggested he go grab it for the night's attack.

However, the shriders did not arrive that night. Minho was _delighted_ , he'd beaten them by over a day! Since they now had time, Minho just trained Chan even more. They went back to sparring, and despite getting knocked back on his ass numerous times because it was really easy to just sweep his feet out from underneath him, Chan was really starting to get the hang of it halfway through the day. Minho gave him the go ahead to start using the sword with one hand, and that just gave Minho the pleasure of knocking Chan to the ground even _more_.

"Awe come on Chan," Minho said, twirling his sword around as Chan lay in the sand, groaning in pain, "I know you can do better than that." 

"Maybe you could have a little mercy," Chan grumbled, "please?"

Minho just pointed his wooden blade down at Chan, using it to lift up his chin.

"Learn quicker and get better," he said, smirking. 

Chan's face turned red. Minho guessed it was from embarrassment. 

He moved his sword back and reached his hand down, helping pull Chan up from the ground.

"Alright," Minho said, going back to his spot, "try it again."

Finally, as the sun began to set once again, Chan actually managed to knock Minho's sword out of his hands, pressing his own sword against Minho's chest.

"Well done!" Minho praised, "you've improved a ton in such a short amount of time! You might be useful to me after all."

"What, being your charming and ridiculously attractive chef isn't enough?" Chan asked, raising one of his eyebrows.

"A chef can only do so much," Minho countered.

Chan moved his sword down and stepped closer, invading Minho's space.

"Trust me," he said, voice quieter, "there's a lot of things I can do that you don't even know about."

"Oh is there? Like what?"Minho questioned.

Chan just winked. "You'll see."

That night was the night the shriders reached the village, and Minho was looking forward to seeing how well Chan would perform with the sword. Suffice to say, the answer was _very_ well. He probably should have gone with that weapon from the start. Chan was more balanced, more efficient, and more confident. And more deadly. 

Minho tried to see how he was fighting while also fighting himself, which was a little difficult. At one point when he was glancing at Chan, Minho saw him grab a shrider that had been crawling up his back and _rip_ it in half. Literally. With his bare hands. Minho couldn't even deny to himself- that was hot. He'd nearly forgotten how _strong_ Chan was- shriders had a weak head but their bodies were tough. It was not an easy feat to just tear one apart.

Minho's momentary distraction was cut short as he felt something crawl up his leg and he got back to work, dual wielding himself a growing pile of bodies. The shriders retreated much quicker that night, they seemed to be starting to learn that humans were no longer easy prey. 

As they celebrated, Chan lifted Minho up in the air again, bouncing him up and down in his arms. When Chan set him back down again, Minho noticed that their faces were very close, and he had to force himself to look away from Chan's lips, because he'd been staring at them. Chan gave him a big smile, and that fluttery feeling in Minho's chest came back. It was much harder to ignore this time.

  
  


They went to two more port cities, and the swarm was getting _so_ much smaller. With the help of others it was easy to catch the shriders' attention and keep any from slipping off to feed, and even though they were learning that humans weren't easy to kill anymore, they still continued to try and attack new cities. And those cities fought back. There were no longer deaths, no more signs of attack, as Minho was now traveling faster than the shriders were. The benefits of journeying by sea vs. over land.

It felt less overwhelming, Minho felt that he might actually achieve his goal.

Chan used the warhammer again at the next fight, and then the sword after that. He was definitely better with the sword since he was (roughly) trained, but he was still good with the hammer too.

At that second port city, the last one on the Manati coast before the capital, they defeated the last of the swarm. Minho bashed and cut and sliced and crushed and then…..there weren't any left.

He'd done it. He wiped them out. He avenged his village. After six years, Minho's quest was complete.

"Wow. We did it." he heard Chan comment.

"Yeah," Minho all but whispered, taking in the last few hundred bodies that spread across the ground, "we did."

As the sun rose, Minho and Chan helped clean up the dead shriders and then spent the day in the market, looking through the stalls.

"So now what?" Chan asked, holding up some fruit.

"Well there's still the possibility of a nest," Minho answered, "that glacier North of my village. They had to come from somewhere, and there's a possibility that they might have reproduced already and will come back with a new swarm." 

Chan hummed, "right, right. How are we going to get to your village?"

"If we sail up to the capital, it's basically due East from there."

Chan's eyes seemed to light up. "I've never actually been to the capital before!"

"Neither have I. I hear it's really noisy and the mead is really good."

"Can't wait to find out for myself if that's true! Oh, we should get some wine."

Minho paused, holding a mango and looking at Chan.

"Wine? Why?"

"To celebrate!" Chan answered, "come on, you finished your big life mission! Have a drink and relax for once!"

Minho hummed in thought. Chan made a compelling point, of all reasons to celebrate, this was a pretty big one. 

So he purchased two bottles when they stopped at a tavern to grab some lunch, while Chan was getting some ingredients to make a stew. 

Later that night, bellies full of the delicious stew Chan had cooked, they sat on the deck and drank the wine straight from the bottle. Minho took off his hooded cloak for the first time in years, no longer afraid to leave his neck unprotected. He was pretty sure he saw Chan do a double take when he walked out of the cabin wearing just a loose shirt over his pants.

As they drank, starting to feel a bit tipsy, Chan suddenly leaned in close, reaching up to hold the side of Minho's face. 

"You have….the entire night sky in your eyes….did you know that?" he said quietly, gently.

Minho's face heated up. "Don't be silly, that's just the alcohol talking."

"Maybe…" Chan whispered, "but it's what I'm always thinking."

And then Chan leaned forward even further and pressed his lips against Minho's, who froze in surprise, not sure how to react. It felt...it felt nice. Minho's eyes fluttered close and he returned the kiss, letting Chan shift closer and run his hand through Minho's hair as the kiss deepened. Something pressed against the front of Minho's lips, and he parted them, gasping a little as something fairly slimy pushed past into his mouth. Was that…. Chan's tongue? Whatever, it felt nice. 

As the kiss continued, their mouths moving against each other, Chan pushed forward, so Minho was tipped backwards and his back hit the deck, Chan above him. Minho let out a small whimper as he felt Chan's hands shift away from his hair and move down his body, causing a shiver to run down his spine.

This was becoming addicting- he needed to break for air, but he didn't want to. Chan felt so nice against him, he didn't want any of this to stop.

However, stop it did as a loud rumble of thunder broke them apart. 

A storm? That wasn't good. A storm at sea could mean certain death, or at least a sunken ship if you weren't able to navigate through. 

They stayed frozen, listening, waiting. Once it seemed to be alright, Chan leaned forward to kiss Minho again- but another, much louder clap of thunder stopped him. He sat back and looked around trying to spot where the thunder was coming from, and then his eyes widened and he gently turned Minho's head to look in the same direction he was. 

Dark and angry clouds looked overhead, _right_ in their forward path. And it was too late to turn around at this point.

Shit.

Chan stood up quickly and raced over to the sails, getting them ready to deal with the already changing winds. Minho, still completely dazed from the kissing, stood up much more slowly and walked up to the wheel to get ready to steer. 

Not even half an hour later, the storm was upon them.

After not sleeping the night before _and_ having drunk a good amount of wine, combined with the adrenaline of not letting either of them die, Minho's memories were rather hazy as to _how_ they managed to get through the storm. But somehow, they did, although it took most of the night and they both ended up soaking wet from all the rain and the seawater that kept splashing over the sides. 

Once the wind had calmed back down to a gentle breeze, and the skies were clear again, Minho fainted from overwhelming exhaustion. 

  
  


When he came to, he was in his bed. Minho had no idea how he got there, since the last thing he remembered was falling down against the wooden deck. As Minho further regained consciousness, he felt a pair of arms wrapped around him, felt another person holding him close from behind. 

And he realized he was naked.

Why was he naked.

Minho shifted to turn around and saw that it was Chan who was cuddled up against him, the other man opening his eyes at the movement. 

"Hey, you're awake!" he said, "how are you feeling?" 

"Why am I naked?" Minho asked. 

"Oh! Well we were soaked to the bone, and I didn't want you to get sick so I undressed you and myself and hung our clothes up to dry, and then cuddled you to keep warm," Chan explained. 

"But why naked??"

"You didn't know? Skin on skin is the best way to conserve body heat."

"Oh….I see."

At that moment Minho felt something dig into his hip, not very hard but it was enough to be annoying.

"Can you move your hand? It's pressing against my hip," he requested.

Chan blinked at him, and then his face slowly turned a very bright red.

"That's- uh- that's not my hand…." he mumbled.

It took a whole thirty seconds for it to click, and Minho found himself blushing furiously as well.

"Okay, um. I'm going to turn back around then," he said, starting to shift back to the position he was in before.

"Wait," Chan said, holding tighter to keep him from moving, "that's... probably only going to make it worse." 

"What do you mean make it worse? Why would that possibly make it worse??"

Still red in the face, Chan blurted out "you have a really nice butt!"

Minho very much wanted to disappear, to escape this moment of embarrassment and... whatever else he may be feeling. Instead, he opted to just get out of bed and put his clothes back on. As he stood up, in all his nude glory, Chan's own embarrassment seemed to dissipate immediately, being replaced by his usual flirtatious nature as he catcall whistled (although his ears were still _very_ pink). 

"I will say, not even the prettiest sunset compares to this view."

Minho glared at him, "why are you so _bold_ all of a sudden?"

Chan blinked at him. "What, you don't remember last night?"

Minho paused. He thought back to the previous night events. Remembered the storm, and before that….he remembered heated kisses….Chan close against him…..

Minho squeaked out an "oh my god" and hid his face in his hands. He got dressed incredibly quickly, and escaped out onto the deck to get some fresh air.

Chan joined him a little later, and Minho told him that he'd spotted the edge of the capital in the cloudless distance- they were close. They had been anchored in their spot, so Chan pulled the anchor up and they got moving. They'd arrive at the capital within the day.

Once they were at the capital, Minho did ask around to see if there were any mysterious deaths- just to make sure the wave of shriders was truly gone. Luckily, there was no news of anything weird, of any mysterious neck wounds.

As they walked around the ginormous market, Minho noticed that Chan kept acting…..weird.

He was way more touchy than before. As in- he kept touching Minho. Holding his hand, putting his own hand on the small of Minho's back, wrapping his arms around Minho's waist, playing with the hairs on the back of Minho's neck. It was _bizarre_ . And it was driving Minho _crazy_.

Although, he certainly liked it. Not that he would admit that out loud.

They were at the weapons vendor, and Minho was admiring a high quality bejeweled dagger, when Chan came up and hugged Minho from behind, resting his chin on Minho's shoulder.

"That's a pretty knife," Chan commented, not noticing- or not caring- about Minho's reddening face.

"It's a dagger," Minho corrected, and Chan giggled.

"Sorry, my bad. You're cute when you show off your knowledge though."

Minho blushed even more, not knowing at all how to react to this shift in…. demeanor? Behavior? He wasn't sure what it was exactly. It was just….weird.

It got even _weirder_ when they were at the local tavern for dinner. The woman that came to bring them their food seemed to take a great interest in Minho's weapons.

"That's a cool axe you have," she said, giving Minho a warm and bright smile. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Minho saw Chan scowl, eyes narrowing.

"Oh thank you! It's a war axe, I forged it myself," Minho answered, politely smiling back, "if you're interested in weapons, I can tell you plenty more."

"Sure thing, handsome" she said, "I'd love to learn all about your... _weapons_...later tonight in my chambers, if that sounds good to you?"

Before Minho could answer, Chan spoke up.

"I don't think he'll be going anywhere near your chambers. Try again on someone else who isn't spoken for," he spat, giving her a very pointed glare.

The lady's smile fell, and she looked a bit taken aback. Minho was just confused.

"Oh- I'm sorry- I didn't realize-" she stammered, before just rushing away.

"Why did you snap at her like that?" Minho asked after she was gone, "she was just interested."

"Yeah, interested in what's behind your belt," Chan said grumpily, arms crossed.

Minho made a face of confusion. ".....my underwear?"

Chan rolled his eyes. "Your cock, she wants to fuck you."

"Wait what?" But she didn't say anything-" Minho said, but Chan interrupted him.

"She didn't _have_ to, it was written all over her face. Raunchy whore." 

Okay that was it.

"Why are you so pissy? In fact, why have you been acting super weird today?" Minho questioned. 

"I haven't been acting weird. What are you talking about?"

"Yes, you have! You keep touching me, and clinging and complimenting me. And now you're angry that some woman wants to sleep with me!"

"Am I not allowed to act affectionate or be possessive of my partner?"

Minho paused. What? "Partner?"

"Uh...yeah? What, do you prefer lovers more?"

What??

" _Lovers?_ Since when have we been lovers?!"

Chan stared, now looking as confused as Minho felt.

"Since we kissed…?" he said, "I mean we may have been a bit drunk, but my feelings are genuine and I laid them all bare." 

"O-oh," Minho replied, "did...did that make us lovers?"

"Well I thought so! But it seems we are on entirely different pages!" Chan exclaimed.

"I've never had a lover before! I don't know how these things work!" Minho argued.

Chan paused again. "Oh. That- I mean- I knew you didn't focus on romance but I'd thought that maybe- like you had at _least_ \- wow that explains a lot. Look, I have feelings for you. Very strong ones. I want to be able to call you mine, if you would let me."

Minho felt his face heat up for what had to be the twentieth time that day.

"I…..I also have feelings," he admitted, "I wouldn't have kissed back if I didn't. But as I said, I don't really know how these things work. No one ever taught me about relationships or courting. But kissing you was nice, I wouldn't mind doing it again. And it was weird having you hanging off of me all day, but I didn't _not_ like it."

Chan laughed, "you're so cute." 

"Shush!"

"So can I call you my lover? Or partner? Whichever you prefer."

"Both sound…..I don't know. They're a bit much. Is there anything tamer?"

Chan thought for a moment. "I could just call you mine? Literally. My Minho."

That made Minho blush even _more_ , and Chan laughed again.

"Judging by your reaction, I think that's a winner," he said, "this also means I'm your Chan." 

His Chan…. Minho did like the sound of that. 

Minho didn't answer, but reached his hand across the table for Chan to hold. The man did exactly that, beaming at him, and bringing back that funny feeling in Minho's chest tenfold. Was this what love was?

They spent the night at an inn, getting a room that had just one bed. They lay side by side on that bed for a while, dressed down to their bed clothes, before Minho spoke up.

"Do you have romance experience?" 

"Yeah, loads," Chan answered, "I mean it also depends on specifics, but yeah loads. In all aspects."

"All aspects?"

Chan held up his hands, counting out on his fingers, "I've had lovers, I've had sex with strangers, I've been to brothels, and I've messed around with fellow sailors."

"Fellow sailors? Really?" Minho asked.

"When you're out at sea for a long time, and there aren't any women around, people seem to care less whose hands are touching them. Once word got around that I like men as much as I like women, there were quite a few folks asking me to help them get relief. It was great honestly, I really enjoyed it," Chan explained.

Minho reached over and grabbed Chan's hands.

"So these hands would know what they're doing," he said.

"Oh definitely. They've explored a lot of bodies," Chan replied, before pointedly dragging his eyes across Minho's body, "though, there's still more skin they yearn to discover…."

"What would they discover?"

Chan chuckled. "Hints don't seem to work on you, do they?"

"I guess not?"

"Can I kiss you?"

"Oh. Yes, you can."

Chan moved forward, capturing Minho's lips with his own. Minho kissed back, deepening it fairly quickly. Like the night before, Chan moved so that he was over Minho. He felt Chan's hands wander over his body slipping under his loose shirt and caressing the bare skin. A thumb pressed against one of Minho's nipples, and he let out a noise, like that of a whimper. It sent a tingly feeling throughout his body, and he could feel himself getting aroused. Chan broke away from the kiss, and moved to start kissing at the skin of Minho's neck, occasionally using teeth to suck at the skin. It felt electrifying. Minho let out a moan, and clutched tightly to the fabric of Chan's shirt. Chan noticed this, and moved to tug it off entirely. After his shirt was discarded, clothes began to become an afterthought, being tossed every which way as the atmosphere got more and more heated.

Chan kissed all over Minho's body, drawing out all sorts of sounds from Minho's mouth, sounds he didn't know he was capable of making. And wherever Chan's mouth wasn't kissing, his hands were caressing, gently moving across the skin, creating goosebumps in their wake. Those hands absolutely knew what they were doing, Minho discovered, even more so after they were covered with oil.

Once Chan moved within him, Minho felt completely full; emotionally and physically. He felt things he had never felt before, and Chan was entirely tender and passionate the whole time. It was wonderful, and once he reached a climax Minho swore he could see stars as he clutched tightly to Chan's arms and cried out in his ecstacy. Chan followed not long after, body stilling as he came to his release.

As they both caught their breath, Chan lightly brushed away a few strands of Minho's hair that had been dampened by sweat. He then moved his hand to gently cradle Minho's cheek, thumb stroking across the small scar that now sat there, and gave Minho one of the fondest gazes he had ever seen in his life. He couldn't help but smile back.

The rest of their journey would be on foot, so Minho paid a ship maker to take care of his boat until he came back for it. Chan suggested they buy horses to make the journey quicker, which was a good idea, so they did. They ventured East, crossing through the edge of the large Whispering Forest (named after legends of spirits whispering to people who got lost and guiding them in the right direction) and the steep Jagged Mountains (named because….well they were pointy and jagged. Kinda self explanatory). They camped, usually, sleeping under the stars, but occasionally there was a town that they were able to stop at. It got cold at night, especially since they were pretty far North, but Minho and Chan were able to keep each other warm throughout the nights of their journey.

When they arrived at the village nearest to Minho's village, they arrived to find some paranoia.

"Some of our farmers were found dead this morning. With the same wounds as the pharmacist and the blacksmith that died last week!" one of the village elders informed them.

"How did they die?" Minho asked.

"We don't know! We just know they all had the same wound on the back of their necks."

Minho shared a worried glance with Chan.

"Was that wound...a small hole at the base of the head?" Chan questioned.

The elder nodded, "yes, have you seen it before?"

Minho's heart dropped. 

"You're kidding me…..they've reproduced _already_?!" he exclaimed, and the elder looked at him in confusion.

Chan quickly explained about the shriders and the swarm that Minho spent six years slowly killing off.

"Just be vigilant and try to draw their attention at night if you can," Minho added, "they're actually fairly easy to kill once you can spot them. You just have to spot them. If you attack some, the others will come to defend, and you can wipe out a bunch before they start to catch the hint and leave to find other easier prey," Minho instructed.

"That….barely makes any sense," the elder responded.

"Their existence makes no sense honestly," Chan reasoned, "they're a prehistoric species that survived being frozen for who knows how long. How they survived being literally _frozen_ makes zero sense. But they exist, and they kill people. You'll be okay if you listen to Minho's instructions."

And so….they stayed up all night to kill…….again. They had to start all over again, with a new swarm to deal with.

When Minho had first met Chan, the swarm had already been whittled down. And when this swarm, that seemed to have headed west rather than south like the original one had gone, Minho could see Chan's eyes widen immensely as he saw how many this new swarm was. Minho was just baffled at how they could possibly have reproduced _so much_ and fully matured in so little time. If they were here, which wasn't far from the source, they must have been fairly young. Whatever was creating offspring, they were certainly _efficient_.

"This is so annoying," Minho muttered to himself, "six fucking years and now I have to start over? Ridiculous, this is ridiculous."

They at least had the help of the town, but it was _nothing_ compared to the armies of the port cities.

At the end of the night, plenty were massacred, but it barely made a dent. 

He and Chan headed out the next day, reassuring the townsfolk that as long as they had patrols looking out for the shriders, they'd be able to cut down on the death count right away. The civilian death count, not the shrider death count. Minho had to clarify that to a bunch of people.

After another three day trek, they finally made it to Minho's village.

It was just as barren as it was when he had left six years ago, except now plants had overgrown and the houses were falling apart, having had no upkeep for so long.

"Wow, so this is where you grew up. It's so….empty," Chan commented.

"Well, yeah. Everyone's dead," Minho replied.

"Right...sorry."

Minho shook his head. "It was six years ago. There's no point being sad about it now. Let's find the glacier."

"Wait!" Chan called out, "I wanna see your house."

Minho looked at him, confused. "Why?"

Chan scratched at the back of his neck, looking a bit bashful. "I just...think it would be nice to see where you used to live. I'd like to take you to where I grew up someday, too."

Minho just blinked a few times. Did Chan really think something like that was important? 

"Well….okay then. It's not completely out of the way, so I guess we can go see it." 

Chan's face lit up, it was honestly cute to see how excited he got. He grabbed hold of Minho's hand and was all smiles the entire walk to Minho's childhood home. Amidst the gloomy and abandoned atmosphere, Chan's smile was very out of place.

Minho's home, like all the others, was overgrown with weeds and plants. The door was falling off, its hinges rusted beyond repair. When he tried to open it, it just fell over completely. 

"Well, here it is," Minho said.

"Certainly not what I pictured, but I guess an abandoned village would fall apart after years," Chan observed, "I'm sure it was a lovely home, back when you lived in it."

Minho squeezed Chan's hand slightly.

"Yeah….it was. C'mon, we shouldn't waste time."

Minho led Chan in the direction of the glacier, feeling more and more nervous as they got closer. What was actually going to be there, unknowingly waiting for them? Would there be a whole mass of shriders that they would have to fight? Would there just be eggs or larvae or whatever the offspring looked like? Would it be a nest? Or maybe a web? A hive? A tunnel? It could be literally _anything_.

Eventually, he spotted ice in the distance- the glacier. As they got closer, they began to spot shriders crawling around, more concentrated at the glacier itself. Minho could see that there seemed to be an opening, likely where the glacier had melted and allowed the shriders to escape in the first place. He also saw what looked like...shrider bodies? Sheer ones. Wait- they were shells. It seemed that the creatures molted, like snakes and cicadas did. The molted skins seemed to just pile up right around the entrance to the hole in the glacier. 

"Well that sure looks…..delightful…" Chan said, grimacing.

"This really isn't the time for your sarcasm, Chan," Minho hissed, "we need to figure out our plans of action. How are we going to eliminate these things? And we have to find the larvae, or eggs, or whatever. Does one of us go in while the other distracts, or do we both go in?"

"I say both go in, weapons out and battle faces on," Chan suggested, "if one of us distracts we might get overwhelmed by the number of them."

"I've gone against more by myself, I'd be able to handle it."

"Well it would just be better if we both went and then they die quicker."

"Alright fine we'll both go. You have your hammer, right?"

Chan held up said item, and Minho nodded, pulling out his mace and axe.

"Okay," Minho said, "let's kill these things."

They continued to approach the glacier, and while Minho tried his best to be sneaky, Chan was not as good at that part. He ran in letting out a yell, and Minho- after looking after the absolute _idiot_ in disbelief- huffed out a sigh and ran after him.

The shriders were quickly altered of their presence and started crawling quickly towards them to attack and defend their...nest? Nest. 

Minho wasn't sure how long they fought against the shriders. They killed and smashed and sliced, but then another wave came out from within the glacier, where Minho figured the actual nest was located. It felt like hours of fighting, but eventually the last shrider was crushed beneath Minho's foot. At least, the last one that came out to fight.

Minho looked at Chan and nodded his head further into the glacier, motioning for them to keep walking. They didn't have to walk very far, the moment the glacier surrounded them, the amount of shed shrider skins tripled, and the area seemed to open up. Minho looked down and he spotted some kind of weird slime with little balls in it. His gaze followed the slime and saw it all over the ground, even traveling up the walls in some places.

"I think these might be the eggs, look," Minho said quietly, nudging at Chan's arm to get his attention.

"Do we smash them up?" Chan asked, holding up his hammer.

Minho shook his head. "Let's make sure all the adults are dead first, then we'll attack the larvae."

Chan seemed to freeze, having spotted something.

"Woah, that shrider looks really different," he said softly.

Minho whirled around to look where Chan was facing.

Right next to a wall of slime were numerous more adult shriders, and then one that had a lighter coloring- almost white, rather than the light brown- and was a good degree smaller.

"Huh. That's weird. Maybe a young one?"

"Or a queen."

"A queen?"

Chan looked back at Minho.

"Think about it. The way they act, as if they all have one mindset. Hive mindset. And I've glanced at those bodies numerous times, there's no indication of physical sex. So how are they reproducing? Someone needs to lay the eggs."

Minho looked back at the smaller shrider. It seemed like it was being surrounded by the other shriders- as if they were protecting it. Protecting _her_.

"You know what, that makes a lot of sense…" Minho said. "so once we kill her, then we've really killed off the species, right? Time to commit some shrider regicide."

The shriders had not spotted them yet, they were just barely out of sight in the little tunnel within the glacier. Once they dashed forward though, they were spotted. The area that the shriders were in became less a tunnel and more like a room- if one could really consider a circular hollowed out area of a glacier that was covered by old skins and egg slime a "room".

Chan leaped into action, swinging his hammer and wiping out the first row of shriders that tried to attack. Minho quickly became busy with his own shriders to fight.

These shriders were harder to kill, they were a good amount smarter, and actually knew how to dodge the swings from weapons. It took a decent amount of time to actually defeat them all. 

Once Minho was done, breathing heavily from the amount of exertion he had put out, he looked over to where the queen was- only to find she wasn't there.

"What the- where did she go?" he asked aloud, glancing over at Chan.

Just in time to see him collapse to the ground.

"Chan!" Minho cried out, dropping his weapons and rushing over to him.

As he got close, he realized where the queen had gotten to. She was latched onto the back of Chan's neck.

"Fuck, she got to you. Hold on Chan I'm gonna yank her off," Minho said, reaching out to flip him onto his front. Chan held out his hand, and Minho wondered if he was reaching out to hold Minho's own hand for comfort.

So of course, he was surprised when that hand moved further up and closed around his neck, starting to squeeze, cutting off Minho's air.

"Chan- what- I can't breathe- you're hurting me Chan-" Minho wheezed, trying to gasp for air, and trying to pull Chan's fingers off of his neck.

As he looked at Chan's face, trying to find out what was going _on_ with him all of a sudden, he noticed that Chan's eyes were glazed over. As if he wasn't in control of his body. As if someone else was controlling him- or something. The queen.

Chan stood up, still strangling Minho, and even lifted Minho into the air, before throwing him away, his back slamming against the icy wall.

Minho coughed and gasped, trying to bring in oxygen after being choked and having the wind knocked out of him from the impact.

"Oh come on!" he cried out once he was able to catch his breath, "mind control? Are you kidding me?!" 

This was ridiculous. How the hell was one little creature able to take over Chan's brain and body? How was mind control even possible in the first place?

He didn't have time to try and answer that question, as suddenly Chan was rushing towards him, swinging his hammer. Minho jumped out of the way, racing out of the tunnel and back outside. Crap. He'd left his weapons inside. But at the same time, if he fought back, Chan would get hurt….

Minho looked back behind him, seeing Chan walk out of the glacier nest and lift his hammer up to strike again. Minho wasn't as lucky this time when he tried to duck out of the way, the hammer hit against his thigh. He cried out in pain and fell to the ground, and rolled away quickly as Chan swung yet again towards the ground. 

What the hell, how was he supposed to kill the queen without hurting Chan? And how the hell was his leg _not_ broken?? It was rather unfortunate that Chan had gotten so good at using the warhammer- that thing fucking _hurt_ . Minho kept dodging and dodging, constantly on defense and trying his best not to _die_ at the hands of the man he loved. However, he eventually managed to get behind Chan, and an impulsive idea popped into his head.

Before Chan could turn around, Minho ran at him, tackling him and knocking him over to the ground face first. Minho sat on Chan's lower torso, keeping him from getting up, grabbed onto the body of the queen, and pulled. She was stubborn, and Minho worried that pulling her off would cause damage to Chan's brain. But he'd rather have a Chan that was brain damaged than a Chan that was trying to kill him, so Minho kept tugging. Fortunately, after several tugs using all of his strength, he was able to pull her off completely, her tongue trailing after her body out of Chan's neck. 

The moment the queen was entirely unattached, Minho slammed her to the ground, pulled out his dagger, and stabbed. He kept stabbing and stabbing and stabbing, taking out his fury at her taking over Chan's mind and putting his life at risk on her small and strange and vulnerable body. By the time he was satisfied, she was long dead, with at least thirty stab holes.

Minho whirled back over to Chan's body, and rolled him onto his back. He was unconscious, but breathing. Minho could feel tears pricking at his eyes as he wondered if the man would ever wake up.

About a minute later, Chan's eyes fluttered open, and he let out a pained groan. Minho let out a small wail and hugged him tightly, tears freely falling down his cheeks.

"Thank goodness…" he murmured, "oh thank goodness...I thought I'd lost you."

"Nah, I wouldn't do that," Chan said weakly, "you'd miss me too much."

"You're so fucking annoying," Minho sobbed, "I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Don't worry about being without me. I promise, I'm not going anywhere," Chan reassured him.

Minho pulled away from the hug, and looked at Chan, who was smiling back at him.

"What happened, by the way? The last thing I remember is being in that nest, and now I'm here on the ground and you're crying as if I nearly died."

"The queen. She could take over minds. She took control of your body," Minho explained.

Chan looked at him as if he was crazy. 

"That's ridiculous," he said, and Minho let out a wet laugh.

"Yeah, I thought so too, but it happened, and you tried to kill me." 

When he heard the last few words, Chan's eyes widened in shock.

"Seriously? Oh geez, no wonder you're crying, I probably hurt you a bunch…"

Minho shook his head. "You didn't hurt me. Well, okay, actually you choked me and threw me against a wall, and your hammer did hit my leg once. But I'm fine. I was just worried that the queen had damaged your brain too much, and that you wouldn't wake up again….and I'd be all alone again…."

His eyes started tearing up more, and Chan reached up to wipe the tear tracks on Minho's cheeks, sitting up straight in the process.

"Darling, I told you I'm not going anywhere. Not ever, okay?" he said, "I'll stay by your side, always, until I either die or you get sick of me."

"That's not going to happen," Minho replied with a sniffle.

"What, me dying or you getting sick of me?" 

"You dying."

Chan gaped at him.

"Wow. Here I am, just had my mind controlled, most likely bleeding from my neck, wiping away your tears like a noble man would, and you just said that you'll get sick of me."

Minho rolled his eyes and just hugged Chan again.

"Hey, it's over," Chan murmured, dropping the joking tone, "it's just extermination of the leftovers from here on out. And then it'll be _over_ over."

"And then what?" Minho asked, pulling away again.

"Go to Navaa with me. Come to my home, meet my family. I just know they'll love you."

Minho nodded, with a small smile.

"That sounds nice," he said, "I'd love that." 

Chan's smile was blinding, and Minho could even feel it as he leaned forward to kiss him tenderly. 

They both looked out at the shrider nest in the glacier, knowing there were still eggs inside that needed to be dealt with. And there was that second swarm traveling across the country. 

There was still a ton of work to do to completely eliminate the threat, but Minho knew they could do it. 

Together.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading <3 leave a kudos and a comment if you liked it!


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